Weakness
by Cake1
Summary: Gabriella couldn't help herself. She couldn't help but stare. The feelings she had developed for her best friend's boyfriend were indescribable. Chadella. Written as a challenge by mzdarkstar. Please review.


Hi! This was a challenge I found on the forums. Here's the details.

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So here's a Challenge; you have to write a story, but the pairings cannot be canon. It has to be the pairing of the main person's best friend. If that makes sense.

**This means the only pairings allowed for this challenge is;**

-**Chadella**, (Chad getting between Troy and Gabriella, or Gabriella getting between Chad and Taylor)

-**Traylor** (Taylor getting between Troy and Gabriella or Troy getting between Chad and Taylor)

**-Ryelsi **(Ryan getting between Kelsi and jason, or Kelsi getting beteen Ryan and Sharpay (in a sibling way or otherwise) or whoever he's going out with)

**-**and . . . well, I guess **Japay**'s allowed as well. (Jason getting between Sharpay and Ryan or whoever she's going out wih, or Sharpay getting between Jason and Kelsi.) _(Lemme know if I've missed any out.)_

**Here are some guidelines;**

story can be based around the idea of **betrayal**, **secrecy**, all that jazz.

2. Only pairings allowed; **Chadella**, **Traylor**, **Ryelsi**, and **Japay**, as I said.

3. Story can be any **length** and any **rating**, but if you can, try to avoid **M**'s.

4. When you're done, post the **link** for your story on this **topic**, so we know you've done the challenge, and can have a read of your story :)

Good luck!

Star* * *

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I'm not sure if I like this one. I was trying to make it different to my existing Chadella story, Those Little Secrets, which kinda follows the same path. Kinda. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

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She just couldn't help herself. She couldn't. She tried not to stare, stare at his full lips, his cute nose, his eyes, dancing with the cheerfulness that always filled him. Her eyes wandered to his hair, the sun coming in through the cafeteria window and bouncing gleefully from his curls.

She took a breath, and tried to shake off that feeling. She was getting used to the feeling, but it never failed to hurt, the pain digging in her heart like needles. Her body was tense, even her soul felt tense. She hoped nobody could sense it. She'd be mortified if anybody could tell that every time he was there, no force on earth could relax her in any way.

"Earth to Gabriella!" Taylor laughed, waving her hand in front of her face. She sighed once again.

"Sorry, Tay." She smiled, falsely, trying desperately to pull her gaze from Taylor's absent-minded stroking of Chad's arm. "Just got a few things on my mind." She stabbed her fork vaguely at the pasta on her plate.

Taylor smiled sympathetically, and used her free hand to rub Gabriella's arm, trying to comfort her.

"Tell me later, k?"

"Sure." Gabriella broke her false smile again. "Thanks." She paused for a moment, before gathering her books and leaving the cafeteria.

When she got through the doors, she let out a breath, a sigh of relief, that she felt like she'd been holding all morning. She skulked off to put her books in her locker, before making her way to a place she liked to call special.

Troy had first introduced her to the rooftop garden. Troy, Gabriella's ex boyfriend. He meant a lot to her. But when she started having thoughts and feelings about Chad… things changed. Feelings intensified, causing bonds to weaken. Eventually their relationship fell apart in a mess of Gabriella's emotions. She didn't know back then whether or not her feelings were just lust or… something more. She'd never really felt pure lust for anyone. She still wasn't completely sure what she felt. All she knew was that when she saw Chad, she couldn't bear how it felt. Often, her heart felt almost like it was twisting. Twisting like someone trying to wring something out of it. Her tears maybe. When she saw Chad, it felt like her knees were likely to buckle any minute.

Of course, she never told Troy any of this. Troy was still completely in the dark for her feelings for his best friend. Troy had inevitably felt the distance that had come between them and wasn't too surprised when Gabriella told him she thought they should split up. He never quite knew why, though, and always wondered what had pulled them apart. He always just assumed that Gabriella wondered the same thing.

Gabriella sat down, on a bench her and Troy had sat together on many times. She stared out at the roof. This was where she taught Troy to Waltz. She let out a big sigh, and rubbed her face. Why did she have to have feelings for Chad? If she hadn't, her and Troy would still be together, and she'd be happy. Instead of this horrible pain of unrequited love, and the guilt she felt for Troy.

She sniffed, trying to stop the tears before they began. Her emotion was scared into remission when she heard footsteps.

To her surprise, she saw an apparently gloomy Troy, trudging up the stairs. When he got to the top, he didn't turn towards her. He sighed, and stared out to the horizon.

"Hey Wildcat." She said, hoping the few tears left in her eyes would go unnoticed.

"Hey." Troy said softly, turning around and smiling. "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to think. Same as you, I guess?"

"Yeah." He laughed slightly, and sat down next to her. "Anything you wanna talk about?"

Gabriella looked at Troy. His kind smile, his amazing blue eyes. She had to try hard not to get sucked into them. And he looked so concerned for her, that she almost wanted to confide in him. Almost, but not quite.

"Not really." She smiled, apologetically. "What about you?"

Troy stared off into the distance.

"Well…" Troy cleared his throat. "I was thinking about you." He said quietly. "It's all I ever do."

"Troy…"

"I know. But I can't help it."

"I'm sorry." Gabriella whimpered, barely audible. She was sorry. She still liked Troy. But 'liked' didn't really cut it; 'liked' didn't really overrule the unbearable feelings she felt for his best friend.

"I know." Troy smiled. Gabriella leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled him close, and hugged him as he tried his best to fight back a few tears.

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Gabriella wasn't sure, but she thought that Troy was starting to try and push the whole getting back together thing. He'd thought it was a good idea for the four of them to hang out at the weekend. Four - being himself, Gabriella, and of course, Taylor and Chad.

Gabriella tried to avoid Chad, and his eyes most of the day. But just as she let her guard down, he came bounding up to her, after the boys had subjected the girls to their own game of one-on-one.

"Hey Gab." He grinned, throwing his arms round her. "We've not had a chance to chat today."

"Yeah…" Gabriella smiled, reeling from the way her body completely tensed up in a second.

"How you doing?" He asked, pulling the hair out of her eyes, her body still encased in his hold.

"Okay."

"I guess Troy's bugging you, huh?" Chad grinned. Gabriella blushed slightly.

"Uh… not bugging me as such." She said, letting a little laughter out. "But I think he needs to try and accept the break up."

"Yeah."

Chad finally let go of Gabriella, who let her body loosen slightly.

"Let's go inside. Troy's Mom made snacks."

An hour or so later, the four had sat down to watch a movie. Gabriella couldn't tell you the title of it, let alone the plot. She'd found herself sandwiched between both boys, causing probably every possible emotion to run through her. Troy was trying to cuddle up to her, when all she wanted to do was the same to Chad. She was on the brink of freaking out, and screaming, but excused herself to the bathroom, and upon her return, sat at the other end of the room.

She couldn't help but glance over to Chad, though. He had his arm loosely across Taylor's shoulders, staring at the TV screen, and every now and then picking up a handful of popcorn and ushering it into his mouth.

Her eyes glazed over, and she stared at the wall. She started to daydream; about her and Chad sneaking off together at school, making out in the music room, engaging in some other illicit activities in other hidden places, including the rooftop garden.

She soon jerked herself back into reality. She was really getting into dangerous territory. She knew first-hand from her relationship with Troy, that if you get in too deep, it's hard to get back out. She had barely gotten over Troy, and he certainly hadn't gotten over her. If she didn't nip this in the bud, she was gonna have more troubles that she could shake a stick at. Her friend, her best friends boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend's best friend. More troubles than she could shake a stick at…

She glanced back to Chad. Barely before her eyes had even lay on him, they flickered away instinctively. Did her eyes just see what she thought they saw?! Was Chad looking at her? She glanced at Taylor and Troy, just in case they were all staring at her. No. Maybe Chad had been wondering what was wrong with her, she was spaced out after all. She glanced back, just in time to see him glance from the TV, to her, and back to the TV again. She looked away, but couldn't help glancing a third time. She caught him this time, their eyes locked. He sent her a small smile, she sending one back. His eyes flickered back to the TV screen. And that was all Gabriella needed to fall in too deep.

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Gabriella had seemed to have lost the ability to feel guilty. She no longer felt bad for Troy, having had her fill of his inability to accept the end of their relationship. She even felt the inevitable happening - she no longer felt guilty for her increasing feelings for her best friend's boyfriend.

Either she was going mad, or… she couldn't even bring herself to think about the 'or'. She was going mad. Because ever since that day at Troy's, she could've sworn she was getting signals from Chad. Maybe not even signals… but she was picking up something.

She would try and catch him out - she could feel his eyes burning on her face, and she'd take quick glances, but most of the time, he was either too quick for her or she was imagining the whole thing. It wasn't just that. Her daily friendly hug from Chad had felt different for a while. It sounded mad and she herself thought she was mad.

"Hey Gab." Chad came up to her one morning, and threw his arms around her, same as he did every morning. He squeezed her tight, and grazed a fingertip up her spine. He pushed his fingers into her full, curly dark hair, and she could have sworn he smelled her hair.

"Hey guys." Gabriella heard a familiar female voice, and Chad jumped away from her.

"Hey Tay!" Chad said, rather overenthusiastically, throwing his arms around her.

"See ya." Gabriella stormed off, leaving a confused Taylor behind with Chad, who frowned, lines gracing his forehead.

Chad Danforth thought of himself a simple man. He liked sports, mainly basketball, baseball, track and field. He liked hanging with his friends. He liked hanging with his lady.

So when he was hit with a flurry of confusing and conflicting feelings, he was rather unsettled. Gabriella was his friend, a buddy. And so he couldn't understand why his eyes kept finding her. Or why his heart skipped a beat when she wore than pink dress. Why he felt a painful pang of excitement and guilt when she caught him staring, and their eyes locked, that night at Troy's.

Chad couldn't help but take a little advantage of his friendship with Gabriella. He'd hug her for a little longer, even taking the opportunity to smell her hair. It was that amazing smell of… her. He had been hit like a ton of bricks with guilt when Taylor had walked in as they were hugging.

Chad was starting to notice Gabriella's crush on him. He couldn't not. Again, he was a simple man, he never overanalysed anything, and when he had started to notice, he tried his best to not fuel it. He had failed, miserably.

When she stormed off, he felt horrible. After a minute, he mumbled an excuse to Taylor about needing to get something from Troy, and he ran of in pursuit of Gabriella. He'd heard her talk with Troy about that rooftop garden, so up he went.

Sure enough, she was sitting on the bench, huddling her knees to her chest, facing sideways. He smiled to himself, guilt filling him once again as he heard her sob.

"I'm sorry." He told her softly, making her jump.

"What are you sorry for?!" Gabriella let out a bitter laugh, wondering why Chad was even apologising.

"I'm not entirely sure." He said, sitting down by her feet. "I'm sorry for making you cry." He shrugged. " I'm sorry for having a girlfriend. I'm sorry for not fighting harder against my feelings, I can't help but stare at you, you're so beautiful, but not that Taylor isn't, I just can't…"

"Chad." Gabriella whimpered. "What's going on?"

"I don't even know!" Chad laughed at himself, sighing. "Guess I'm a little slow on the uptake." He told a confused Gabriella. "Troy noticed straight away just how beautiful you were. Just how loving and funny you were." He shrugged. "It took me 5 years to notice Taylor."

Gabriella let out a small laugh, still sobbing.

"I don't get it, Chad. What are you even trying to say?"

"I know about your crush." He giggled softly. "And it ain't one sided."

Gabriella looked up.

"Are you serious?" She said in a casual, disbelieving tone, whilst rolling her eyes.

"When I hold you…" Chad gulped, trying to get through his soppy sentence. "I never want to let you go."

"But you're with Taylor."

"I know." Chad sighed. "That's why nothing can happen. And for that: I am sorry."

"I'm sorry too." Gabriella smiled. Chad stood up and took her hands. He pulled her to her feet, and wrapped his strong arms around her small frame. She buried her face in his chest, and inhaled his scent. He stroked her hair, twirling some around his finger. She looked up into his eyes. "This sucks."

"Yeah." He giggled softly. "These things happen in life. But nothing can happen between us." He insisted, looking into her eyes, trying to convince himself more than her. But before he knew it, he had leaned down, and his lips were pressed against hers.

"After that." He corrected himself.

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It was one moment of weakness, everybody is allowed one moment of weakness. So Chad told himself. That kiss he'd stolen that night, that was his moment. And what a moment! Two weeks later, Chad had kept no promises he'd made. As he pushed Gabriella against the wall of the music room, their lips met in a flurry of passion, neither feeling quite conscious enough to take it all in. Forget one moment of weakness. He'd blown any claim of what he was allowed to do, now. He kissed Gabriella's neck, sucking slightly when she started to whimper. He grinned against her skin.

Gabriella had her eyes closed. If she had them open, she would have been dizzily staring at nothing. When they opened themselves for a second, she froze. They had opened, and lay themselves at the door. The little window in the door was obscured by a face. An upset, angry, mortified face. The face of her best friend, Taylor. By the time Chad looked up, the face had gone. Gabriella was still frozen, words unable to escape her mouth. The passion she had just been filled with ran dry, and she was filled with purely guilt, dread, and hatred of herself. Chad stared at her in a daze, simply mystified, and oblivious to the event that just took place. The event that was to change life as he knew it.


End file.
